Trisha Averill came so close to winning the race. And while that didn’t quite work out in last Saturday’s Class 4A state girls swimming finals at the King County Aquatic Center, the Auburn High senior did win a coveted spot on the school’s record board.
Averill completed a speedy weekend during which she dropped more than two seconds from her 100-yard breaststroke entry time, giving her fourth place in the event, and breaking the old Trojan record of 1:05.88 set by Emily Kukors in 2002.
“That was definitely a goal, especially after my sophomore year when I missed it by four-hundredths,” said Averill, who clocked a 1:05.11. “This year after my prelim swim (1:06.35 last Friday), it definitely seemed like it was in reach.”
The breaststroke title was within reach, too. Matter of fact, it was within reach of four girls – and two of them wound up sharing it, as all four finished within half a second of each other. Garfield’s Maddy Morgan and Redmond’s Heather Harper hit the wall simultaneously in 1:04.60, with Snohomish’s Emily Ferrerra right behind in 1:04.75, then Averill in 1:05.11.
“When I was racing, I didn’t realize it was as close as it was,” Averill said. “I felt pretty good in the water. I felt like I was doing what I had to do to go that fast.”
Averill also took fourth place in the 200 IM in 2:07.04. While that one didn’t make the record board, it was a personal best for her — and was a drop of more than three seconds from her prelim time of 2:10.07.
“I’ve been changing my strokes a little bit. It’s hard when you’re doing that to go that fast,” Averill said. “This whole summer at club, I didn’t train the IM. I did it once (during the season) and did a good time, so I started focusing on that a little bit.”
Averill will have some club meets coming up, then will start focusing on a college decision.
“I’m trying to keep my options open,” she said. “I was waiting to see how I did in this meet and how I do in December (at a club meet) until I start narrowing down all my choices.”
Averill wasn’t the only Trojan on the state awards stand. Junior teammate Shawna Jordan took third in 1-meter diving, finishing with 388.80 points. Stacey Luke of Inglemoor was the winner with 412.70 points.
Jordan won the Class 3A state title last year.
A great time to drop time
In Amber Cratsenberg’s world, going significantly faster takes some considerable doing – because as a sprint freestyler, she doesn’t have much distance in which to do it.
But the Jefferson freshman did it in the 50 free at state. Coming into last Friday’s preliminaries with a season-best time of 24.26, Cratsenberg whacked off four-tenths of a second to retain her No. 2 seed, then finished in that second-place position in Saturday’s finals with an even faster time of 23.78.
The only girl to go faster was Jackson junior Amber Pazevic, who won in 23.55. She was top-seeded coming into the finals at 23.81
“In the race, I didn’t really feel like I was going my best,” Cratsenberg said. “Then when I turned around (and looked at the clock), I was really excited.”
She felt exactly the same after the 100 free, in which she finished fourth in 51.83. She came into state at 52.50, then dropped that to 52.09 in the prelims.
“It was amazing. I didn’t think I could go in the 51s at all,” Cratsenberg said.
Although she prefers the 50 at the moment, that could change some day.
“The 50 is my stronger race, but my coaches are trying to make me faster in the 100,” Cratsenberg said. “They think that will be my stronger race when I get older.”
In the wake
Jefferson sophomore Savanah Coe made the finals of the 100 breaststroke, finishing eighth in 1:09.33. Coe also was part of TJ’s 12th-place 200 medley relay, which included two fellow sophomores — Janice Huynh in the backstroke, and Michelle Hogan in the butterfly – and freshman Cratsenberg on the freestyle anchor leg. Coe wound up in four races for the day, as she was 16th in the 100 butterfly in 1:01.45. … Jefferson and Auburn finished alongside each other in the team standings. The Raiders were 18th with 54 points; the Trojans took 19th with 46.
